The frogs keep you company for most of the night..... then a few hours of silence until all the birds start chirping..... and the odd cat meowing for food under our window....learning to exist on less sleep than normal. There is one little frog who starts the night off with a studder or a lisp....he's just not got the same sound as the others but eventually he fits in.....I kinda like hearing him start the night off.
This orange cat looked like it wanted into the neighboring unit but the birds kept getting in the way and dive bombing the poor kitty!
These apple bananas are our favourite
Heading to the Northern portion of the island to go do a hike at Pololu Valley.
This insane wall is actually made of stacked lava rock!
This area is very lush farmland, such a drastic contrast to the lava fields.
The Big Island contains 8 of 13 different climate zones in the world, each with unique ecosystems. These ecosystems range from tropical dry forest to subalpine grasslands, from snowy alpine deserts to brackish anchialine pools, and from subterranean lava tube systems with eyeless creatures to windswept coastal dunes.
The Big island is built from five separate volcanoes: Kohala, MaunaKea, Hualālai, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Of these, MaunaKea is with 13,796 feet the tallest mountain in the state and the tallest sea mountain in the world.
It's easy to see in each road trip we take by how different things look, feel and smell in such a short period of time. I think it's why we love the Big Island so much!
Pololu is a steep 20-25 minute hike down ṭo the black sand beach and a long climb back up! We had done it before but things have eroded alot since then. You have to keep your eyes on the trail all the time.
Pololu Valley first formed around 500,000 years ago from volcanic activity, beach and stream erosion. Then, around 250,000 years ago, a large volcanic eruption caused the massive rockslide giving us these amazing cliffs that we saw today!
The views are just so amazing the entire trip down and back!
21 minutes down.... what a view. It's a black sand beach and I had hoped to play in the water but we were told the beach and ocean are covered in Portugese man o war!
The Portuguese Man o' War is a colonial organism, a siphonophore, that is often mistaken for a jellyfish. (Those weren't my words)
It has a gas-filled float that resembles a sail and long, venomous tentacles. The sting is very painful, causing red welts, and can be dangerous, especially for those with allergies.
I was not taking any chances even though these ones were quite small.
This is what they look like in the water.
This was the only wildlife we saw....Joe was trying to take a picture of it when it decided to chase him around for a bit! The crab was pretty shiny!
Portions of the area are closed off as sacred grounds with ancestors of the Hawaiians buried there. It is considered disrespectful to even take a "bathroom break of any sort" on the hike....
And then all the way back up and surprisingly it took us almost the same amount of time to get back up and it was steep!
Stopped in Hawi to check out some of the shopping.
Waipio Valley Lookout
I am thinking they don't like to re-stock the TP very often....I counted 19 rolls ready and waiting to use...on both sides of the stall!!
And a great place for a bevi.. what a view!
Stopped for some local fruit and looking forward to taste testing some of these unusual looking fruit on the island.
These apple bananas are our favourite
No comments:
Post a Comment